Richard Whitehead was a member of the U.S. Army Airborne during World War II. He was inducted in Portland, Oregon, in August 1943 and started training the same month. Wounded during training in March 1944, Whitehead spent two months in the hospital before leaving and achieving the Sergeant rank in June 1944. He served in several places during the war including Ft. Mead, Maryland, Ft. Ord, California, and Camp Knight, California, before joining the U.S.S. General McRae in November 1944. He served in New Guinea, the Philippines, and Japan in the last year of the war. Whitehead continued to serve in the military until at least 1952. The collection mostly contains personal letters before, during, and after World War II, as well as some ephemera and photographs from the mid 20th century. 

Photo of Richard Whitehead in uniform standing in front of Misawa Rocker Club in Japan.

For more about this collection. see the Descriptive Finding Guide.

Images from this collection can also be found on Flickr.